[Elecraft] K3 - Ergonomics

[Vic Rosenthal K2VCO]

I too am an 'old' K3 owner (in more than one sense). I have K3 #0007. 
Yes, /seven/. I was one of the incredibly lucky members of a focus group 
when the K3 was still in prototype form.

I love my K3 as much as anyone can 'love' a radio. But I agree with 
Dave, Joe and Ian that the K3 still has some rough edges.

My analysis is that this is an economic problem. Elecraft has to pay the 
bills, which they can't do unless they sell stuff. I once suggested to 
Wayne that he charge something for 'premium' firmware, possibly with 
specialized features that not everyone would want. That would give them 
some revenue to finance continued development for existing products.

He told me -- in no uncertain terms -- that Elecraft would never, ever 
charge anything for firmware updates.

In any transaction you get what you pay for, and we have no way to pay 
for continued K3 development.

On 4/3/2014 2:12 PM, David and Dianne on Comcast wrote:
> Joe, W4TV and Ian, GM3SEK; I found both of your posts to be spot on with
> me and very insightful.
>
> I own K3 #371 and have been disappointed with the lack of its further
> development in the past 18 months or the "finishing" of some features as
> mentioned by Ian.. And as much as I have tried, really tried, for SIX
> years to adapt to the "tap and hold" button feature...it's not for me.
>
> When new, the K3 was a blast to own, to use and to participate in the
> development of it for about the first four years. But my attitude
> towards it has changed in the past two years or so.
>
> It's not the the K3 is "bad", far from it, but  it could be refined into
> an even better rig rather than into an apparent development stepping
> stone for the KX3 which holds no interest here for me. To me, one of the
> shortcomings of SDR is that the promise of on-going support and upgrades
> is usually not fulfilled in the long run, for myriad business and
> technology related reasons. I view promises from any manufacturer (TT,
> ICOM, Kenwood, Flex etc.) concerning future, long-term firmware
> development with great skepticism. It never continues past a certain
> time-frame which is usually ends much sooner than one initially
> expects.  As for updated/redeveloped K3 boards to be forthcoming, I hope
> ... but expect not. So I am not holding out hope for any further
> meaningful development for the K3. Elecraft has been far better with it
> than most but it appears that the K3 with 8000+ units sold is now a
> mature product which will see refinements and enhancements as rarer and
> rarer occurrences if at all.
>
> I have found myself contemplating parting ways with the K3 and Elecraft
> of late being drawn back to using  my TT Corsair II and Omni V.9 more
> and more. Highly modified by me, they compete very favorably with the K3
> for my op style and expectations. (IMO TT has gone in a very strange
> business direction of late which causes me to wonder what they are doing).
>
> Everyone is entitled to their personal opinions and for most the K3
> seems to still be the epitome of HF rig evolution. That's fine. I mean
> you no bad will nor is my intention to convince you otherwise.
>
> But after six years I still miss my dedicated band switching (with
> stacking registers) and I still don't like Kool-Aid regardless of
> flavor.  ;-)
>
> 73 de N1LQ-Dave


-- 
73,
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/